Are you a CA resident? If so…you have MANY UCs and Cal states from whichnto choose…and many offer CS as a major.
And ALL cost far less than $60,000 a year for an instate student.
@kjake2000, there are some excellent state flagship universities and some LAC’s that will provide merit aid with those stats, but assume that only a couple of the top-20 in either group will do so as they generally only provide need based aid.
Agree with those that say it’s a personal decision that parents should make based on what’s appropriate for them, debating what’s right is not.
College financial aid is a very complex topic. The Forbes magazine article at this link was the most helpful to my family in understanding the rules and processes as well as planning and applying for financial aid https://www.forbes.com/sites/troyonink/2016/01/30/2016-guide-to-college-financial-aid-the-fafsa-and-css-profile/#4285a2667e8a.
There is a lot of hype out there and no two family situations are alike. Colleges also use different formulas to compute how much financial aid they will offer. One college our D applied to even wanted to know what kinds of cars my wife and I drive! How much assets your family owns and what type they are can also make a big difference in eligibility for need based aid.
There is a useful Federal EFC table in the article. Some people seem surprised that families can have an annual adjusted gross income of $200K a year and still qualify for some financial aid.
The private college our D attends does have a considerable number of students paying full sticker price in excess of $60K a year. It’s still worthwhile to apply for financial aid in most cases.
what would happen if my parents lost their job, quit, got fired etc.?
Would this impact FA in any way?
@thumper1 I do not live in CA, my state schools are not as good as I would like. In-state schools are not really an option for me unless I move to a different state.
In state schools are ALWAYS an option…always. Your parents pay taxes in your state. In many instances…this will mean that your instate costs will be less than OOS costs.
And really…if your family can’t afford the OOS costs of a probate university or public OOS school…and you don’t get sufficient aid to attend…what will you do?
@twoinanddone was the one who thought you were from CA.
But you say your oarents CAN pay…and you just don’t want them to? Thenstart lookig. For places where YOU will get merit aid.
If you move to a different state, you likely won’t be considered a state resident for tuition purposes. Residency is generally determined by where the parents live. Some colleges won’t change your status after freshman year.
Your EFC will be determined based on prior/prior income, so for the 2017-18 school year colleges would consider 2015 income. Parents are first in line to pay for college, and schools have seen all the strategies. If your parents decide to quit their jobs just as you’re about to enter college that’s poor planning on their part. Why should colleges subsidize their early retirement? If they lose their jobs, colleges will expect them to find another. Don’t enroll in an expensive school expecting them to provide more aid. If your parents can’t/won’t pay for all 4 years, it’s not affordable.
If your parents are upper income and can afford to pay for college, the best way to help them lower costs is to pursue merit aid or choose a lower cost school. There really aren’t any special workarounds for getting costs lowered at a school that considers you full pay.
For 2017-2018, the most expensive colleges are approaching $75K per year.
Thought they were capping out closer to $68k all-in, which will be $72k next year, then $77k, then $83k…
The COA at NYU THIS year is over $70,000.
but right…most of the others are hovering in the high $60ks.
The most expensive college in the country for 2016-17 was $69,717 for tuition and room & board. We were full pay there for the last two years of my kid’s time there.
How much was added to the room board tuition costs for things like books, personl and transportation? Betting you spent more than $70,000 total.
Yikes.
I thought she was from California because she listed her stats like this:
I understand your confusion. I did this just because it is easy to compare my UC fully weighted and unweighted than me listing off some random school based gpa that has no merit/background. I said UC gpa because it provides context to weighting etc.
I am a guy btw.
@kjake2000, Your best bet is to start building your list with a state (financial/academic) safety. How much have your parents said they’ll pay per year? Will it cover your state flagship? Once you have a safety or two, start running the net price calculator for other schools. If your parents will pay the net cost, read the websites of those colleges to see if you qualify for merit aid. I don’t think you’ll get a discount at public CA schools and you won’t be able to get residency there, so if your parents aren’t willing to pay full price for those schools take them off your list.
We cannot afford to pay what the calculators say our contribution is. We were on the hunt for big merit aid.
At the time, in 2016, D16 had a full tuition scholarship to U Alabama, full tuition scholarship to Fordham (still too expensive due to room & board and travel), full tuition scholarship at ASU, $30K per year from Tulane (still too expensive), and full tuition plus room & board scholarship at U Kentucky. She’s at UK and making the most of the opportunities down there.
If we had gotten to College Confidential a little earlier in the application season, I’m confident we could have found other schools with big merit, either automatic or competitive.
You can find those schools too! Cast a wide net and then compare the FOUR year cost, and what each school offers.
Our D’s college financial aid office says to contact them directly if there is a significant event, such as loss of parent employment, which would materially change the student’s eligibility for need-based aid.
One metric we used to evaluate potential colleges for our D to attend was the Forbes magazine financial health scores of each institution. Some colleges have very large endowments, strong fundraising, and are very health financially. These are graded “A” financially. These colleges are most likely to be most generous with financial aid.
In contrast, those colleges that are deep in debt, have small endowments, are financially mismanaged, and have poor fundraising get bad financial health grades and consequently aren’t likely to be generous with financial aid or helping you if there is an issue.
@thumper1, yes, it was more than $70K total. Someone posted an article today on out parent FB page that happened to list the most expensive colleges, but it just showed tuition and R&B.
“Then your only option is to seek out colleges with merit aid.”
Or in-state, or outside the US (eg, University of Waterloo is excellent for CS, the last time that I checked the total cost for international students was about C$50,000 per year, which works out to about US$37,000).
A lot of state schools have very good CS programs. I have worked with people from many different state schools around the US. However, I am not sure what OP’s state is.
The simple answer to your question is “If they can afford it, then Yes. Otherwise, No.”
As others have already said, your most affordable options are your instate schools or trying to get merit aid. To do the latter, you might have to submit separate applications, meet earlier deadlines, and write additional essays. For the most competitive scholarships, you might have to interview and spend some time there. Other scholarships are automatic, based on your stats. Still others are given by the Admissions Office together with your acceptance to entice you to attend.